Goodbye to Suffering

In Act III, Scene 1 of the play that bears his name, Hamlet utters his famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy, in which he refers to “the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” Thus he describes the suffering that the usual human being experiences off and on during his or her life.

Zen Buddhism offers a remedy for this suffering. Zen says that it is possible to set aside the “flesh,” or the ego, that is at the root of it. The ego is the “I-consciousness” or sense of personal self that we usually carry around with us. When we think or feel something, we suppose “I am thinking this, I am feeling this.”

There is a well-known Theravadan sutra (or sutta) called the Bahiya Sutta, which vividly explains the remedy for suffering. In the essay “No You” in the present collection of essays, the sutra is shown to say that if the “you” (meaning sense of “I” or the ego) is removed from consciousness, “This, just this, is the end of stress.”

I don’t remember how it came about, but many years ago I gave a talk to a group of Protestant ministers in which I explained the Buddhist view that the self or ego had no real existence and could be set aside. I was surprised by the indignant and outraged response that came from the ministers.



In another essay in this collection, “You Can Get It if You Really Want,” I try to reinforce the Buddhist view that the ego can be set aside by quoting Nisargadatta, a well-known spiritual teacher from the Hindu tradition. He was asked during a talk, “How is the person removed?” He replied, “By determination. Understand that it must go and wish it to go – it will go if you are earnest about it.”

In the same essay, I suggest to zazen sitters,

Just as during zazen, a practitioner puts aside thinking to return to breathing, so can the same be done in daily life when one notices an awareness of himself in his mind. Just put it aside, do whatever you are doing without it being in the road, and there you are.

I doubt that any of the Buddhist views or suggestions above would pacify the Protestant ministers, who reacted as though Buddhism was recommending killing oneself. In a way, though, that is what Zen is recommending. In another essay in this collection, “A Tribute to Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind,” Shunryu Suzuki says, “To live in the realm of Buddha nature means to die as a small being moment after moment.” Christian mystics have proposed the same death. Outside Hindu or Christian mysticism or Zen thought, I suppose that this approach may seem life-threatening.